


Mindbreak (HC AU)

by That_One_Demiboy



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: AUs, Abuse of Authority, Abuse of Power, Angst, Blood, Crying, Deals, Deception, Gen, Ghosts, Headaches, Hermitcraft RPF - Freeform, Hugging, Hurt/Comfort, Hypnosis, Hypnotism, Hypocrisy, Insanity (kinda), Kidnapping, Latin, Latin prayers, Lavender Town Syndrome (kinda), Lynching, Manipulation, Mental Abuse, Mentioned Neglect, Mild Language, Mind Control, Mindbreak, Mindbreak AU, Misophonia, Murder, Perma-ban, Public Execution, Rigged Elections, Scratching, Spying, Superiority Complex, Torture, a least in this fic, a lot goes on, banning, blackmailing, brief mentions of cults, convex, deification, deification of inanimate objects, empty threats, may or may not be angst, mentioned self harming behaviours, more to be added - Freeform, ongoing, ooc when they get hypnotised, platonic pet names, platonic seduction, poorly-timed jokes, prison cells, proofread by other people, scar is messed up, scar is... not a good boy, spells, starving other people unintentionally, this gem was made on discord, this is angst, torture through repeated music, very few platonic 'fluffy' moments, who am I kidding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:14:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28593822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_One_Demiboy/pseuds/That_One_Demiboy
Summary: We all know Scar as the Mayor of Hermitcraft, the one that has the power, the one that can show up any builder with even a flash of his landscaping skills.… but what if it wasn’t as simple as that?
Comments: 11
Kudos: 33





	1. A Deal With A Vex

**Author's Note:**

> Huge Shoutout to Ghostie (They/Them) and Twine (She/Her) on a discord server I’m in for helping me develop this au, and Milly (any pronouns), wither (she/her), and sloth (he/him) for proofreading this chapter for me! If you want to be a proofreader, dm me on discord (That-One-Demiboy#7744).  
> Anyway enjoy the first chapter!

It had been three weeks. Three weeks since Bdubs and himself got dragged into the ‘mayoral race’ shenanigans. 

He sighed, running his hand through his bangs, looking over the village he put so much dedication, so much work, into building with his own two hands. Not even the stacks and stacks of crystals which he threw into a pile of defects could amount to the herculean effort it took to empty out his pockets from the shulker boxes worth of dirt, laying out land for more hand-carved wooden structures and houses, in which he built, much like the landscape, from the ground up.

His hands shakily grasped the railings of the bridge he was on, taking a final glance before flying back down to Larry, flinging the door open and letting his robes sink down to the floor, bare feet tapping against the spruce in an attempt to find the path to his ladder, one he had memorised so often from the thousands of hours he had spent hoping that he’d make it before dawn rose. From the thousands of times he had worked himself to the point where there was dirt and dust under his fingernails, splinters in his hands, and a bruise or two on his legs. 

Finally feeling the brittle sticks on his hands, Scar ran his hands up the vertical poles, feet latching onto the platforms one by one, the trap door above him swinging open with a simple tap from the top of his head, banging against the wall before bouncing back to close again, this time caught by his body quickly pushing itself up into the room. His bed was left against the wall on the other side, a red sheet half on and half off, just barely touching the ground. He grasped the edge of the mattress, pushing himself onto it with minimal effort, quickly pulling the quilt over himself as he slowly went into the dream world. 

* * *

“Hey, Bdubs, about the mayor thi-”

He looked up toward the throne, Bdubs quickly pulling himself up onto the ridged outside with a sadistic grin on his face. Groups of hermits surrounded him, declaring him the mayor of the server. Him and his ‘campaign manager’ locked eyes for a split second, hurt blazing in his eyes like a wildfire. Red ribbon quickly fiddled around his neck, dragging him away from the Town Hall, through the Mycelium which stained his clothing with a grey, gloomy silk. 

He soon was wound up in a cave, the ribbon which had led him here slowly falling down to his side, like a leaf in the wind. His hand reached out to grasp it, before it ran through the thin gaps between his fingers, running against the stone and down to a puddle of water. Something dripped from the surface, a dark, purplish liquid, falling down and piling on his hat, overflowing water slowly falling to the floor, much like it was attempting to do when it came from above. 

Footsteps echoed down from the tunnel in front of him, eventually coming up to reveal a familiar figure. White, curly hair, a blue rag tied around their eyes, with a wicked smile barely covered by a silver scarf, lined with gold. Their body was covered up to just under their knees with a periwinkle cloak, the rest of their legs bare. They seemed to be pitying him, if they could even see him. 

“Scar, did you really think that he wouldn’t do something like this to you? He’s been betraying you since the start, only using you as a stepping stool to reach his cruel desires.”

“W- Who even are you? What do you want from me?”

The person let out a light chuckle. Guessing by their voice, Scar assumed that they were a girl. But it was too hard to tell, especially with the echo in the cave and the cheering which only slightly filled his ears with pain. 

“Why, you don’t remember the Convex? We were the ones that got you here in the first place! If it weren’t for us taking responsibility for what you had done, you would have been banned a  _ long _ time ago. We never showed up last season because that traitor of an admin broke his promise between us.”

He shuddered, remembering the absolutely psychopathic things that they made him do for them. Bring the severed heads of the hermits, open up portals for them, even try to straight up perma-kill the other hermits for their cult. Not like he ended up doing those things, he was disgusted in himself for even letting them control him like that. 

“Just get to your point. What do you want with me?”

They came up to him slowly, rubbing his back and pulling him up from the ground. Their hands were soft, almost like cobwebs. Yet at the same time they felt wrong, like there was something possessing those lush fingers, forcing them to do this.

“I’m here to make a deal with you. That is, unless you don’t want to be mayor. Then I’ll leave you to realise this will all come true.”

His eyes lit up, quickly looking over toward them, trying to find a way to make eye contact. He could tell that they could see him, how would they have known it was him in the first place? 

“...go on.”

They smirked, putting their fingers on Scar’s chin, pushing his head up to lock eyes with them.

“I’ll help you gain control over the server. I can help you avoid this from ever happening. You can be mayor of this land. But I require you to do something in return for me.”

“Which is?”

“Simple, ban Xisuma from this world. Permanently. Promise to do that one thing for me, and I’ll promise to help you.”

Scar lost himself in thought for a second, considering the wager that was on. Then he spoke up.

“Let me get this straight. You will help me keep the role of mayor, and in return I just have to ban someone?”

“Not keep, just get the role. Everything that you do afterward would be and is your fault. I just want X banned, so he can finally get the justice he deserves for breaking the truce we had between us.”

He sighed, quickly reviewing the choices in his head. Should he just ignore them, and let this heartbreak happen all over again? Or trust them this once, and avoid this, and possibly risk getting banned while he’s at it? Then again, the idea of ruling over the whole server does sound pretty pleasing...

“...fine, you’ve got a deal.”

A small laugh came from the figure, as they grabbed a bag from their cloak, dark blue with white tassels and sky blue silk on the inside lining. They pulled it open with a tug, and picked out a small crystal spike, orange in colour. They held it out to him, a small light refracting through it. It looked similar to his crystals, not like that would make a difference, it was just a small thing about it that he took note of.

He put his hand out, as the crystal neatly fell into the palm of his hand. The shimmer of it quickly disappeared, letting Scar get a clear view of it. It was more of a sunset orange in tone, and it seemed fairly well kept for something of the vex. Too well kept. Like it belonged somewhere else. Like it had been taken from someone, not like anything like the Vex would not have stolen it.

“What exactly does it do?”

“Use it and find out. Hand it to Bdubs in the morning, it’ll be right next to you when you wake up.”

Scar nodded, quickly pinching himself in the arm, hoping it would be enough to get him out of this dream.

* * *

And this marks the day that Scar sold his sanity for the throne.

Scar woke up with a jolt, rubbing the area he pinched himself at, looking around for the crystal that they said would be waiting for him. The sharp edge of it pressed against his arm, piercing a small hole in his skin before he quickly drew away, a small bit of blood dripping onto his bedsheets, just barely visible against the reds and whites. The shard hadn’t changed in colour nor become contaminated with blood, thank god. 

He grabbed his hat next to him, a bit of it having a small wet patch on it. Was… was that all real? Or was it just a coincidence? Whatever, he didn’t care about it at this point, his mind was set on one thing and that was the vex’s words. ‘Use it and find out’. Was it a gift, would it do anything? Then again, why would they have given him a crystal if it  _ didn’t  _ do anything?

It shouldn’t matter anyway, he just needs to give it to Bdubs and see how it goes from there. If it goes south, he can explain what went on. If he ends up liking how it goes, he can just as easily take it back when he wins, if he doesn’t get ahead of himself to win. Which he wouldn’t, at least not with the way it’s currently going. He’ll just play fair until he wins, ban X, and then everything will go back to normal. Hopefully.

He put his hat over his head, just barely covering his chocolate brown locks, a few strands peeking out for small gasps of air, just barely visible in his sight. The crystal was kept firmly in his hand as he made his way back down the ladder he came up from, like a repeating jukebox left on until cobwebs cover the disk and the recital sounds more like a satanic ritual. When he could feel the metal and firm, dark wood against his feet, he let go of the ladder, rushing over to the exit, dragging his robe off the floor and quickly tying it around his waist, fumbling with the shard in his hand before putting it into his pocket.

Scar took his communicator off of the table that was left in the center of the room, texting Bdubs on it before heading off. 

‘Hey Bdubs, mind meeting me at the TH? I got a plan for our campaign.’

And with that, and a quick tie-on of his elytra, he was off.

* * *

“He should be here any minute now…”

Scar put his hands in his pockets, tapping his fingers to his palms gently. There was still something off about this, something that wasn’t quite clicking with him. Something that is just so subtly unsettling but you can’t put your finger on what because of how little information you have in regards to it. Was it going to make Bdubs go against stealing the spotlight, would it do anything like permakill him? The wizard was about to pull his communicator out to check for the location of the tanned boy, before hearing rockets sound from above the hall, quickly seeing his manager come into view, red bandana flying freely in the wind. 

“Scar, my sweet! I missed you! What did you need me for?”

He smiled softly, distraught by the nickname. He knew it was purely platonic, but the way that he said it with a sweet tune, and a small spark in his eyes, made him feel responsible for him, somehow. 

“I need you to come with me for something. It won’t take long, I promise.”

He lied, just hoping that whatever it was wouldn’t last long. Surely it would just make him reconsider, or trust Scar into being the right pick for mayor, right? He knew there were other possibilities with vex magic, death, possession, anything was on the table with what they were known to do. Mostly to do with infesting people’s dreams and forcing them to worship the vex, from what Scar and Cub saw back in season five.

Bdubs nodded slightly, as Scar walked off, beckoning him over to a spare room off the side of the throne room. The room was dark, with a small light in it, and two jail cells, with the keys left in the doors, 0019 and 0018 engraved on them. The walls were grey and covered in cobwebs already, and two speakers were left on either side of the room, hidden in the corners. 

“This room will do.”

The door shut beside him, locking shut with a simple click of the handle. Scar quickly turned to Bdubs, grabbing the crystal out of his pocket and holding it up to his eyes. A small inch of light came in, refracting onto the wall and giving it a sunrise-like haze. 

“I found this in a pile of crystals. I don’t know what it does yet, but it might give us the boost of interest we need to at least get close to winning.”

He held it out to Bdubs, smiling distinctively as he watched the smaller hermit flicker his eyes up and down it, a questioning gaze directing itself back and forth, then toward his gaze, repeating until he finally spoke up.

“You’re the expert here, how can you not know what it does?”

“I just don’t, maybe I’m immune to it, alright? Just hold it and lets see what happens”   
  


Bdubs sighed, holding his hand out, before feeling the cold, sharp edge of it collide with his hand. For a split second, he looked surprised. Almost shocked. Then his expression flattened, and he looked more spaced out than he did originally, almost dead inside, lifeless at least. Like all of his energy had just been sucked from him. 

“Bdubs? You good there?”

Scar waved his hand in front of him, snapping his fingers once before the other slowly turned to look up at him. His eyes were foggy, a silver sheen covering them. His bandana softly fell over his eyes, and he didn’t even react to it. Correction, he couldn’t even react to it. Like there was something stopping him from doing anything. Like he was just taken over by something. And Scar only knew one way to find out.

“Fix your Bandana for me.” 

In an instant, he nodded, pulling his hands up and untying it, pulling it up to the top of his head before tying it back up again, tighter this time to avoid it falling down again. After he had finished, he looked up toward him, a small bit of that haze in his eyes going away. It looked like he was waiting for him to speak, or do something. Was he waiting for an order? Or waiting for Scar to take it back?

Was he really meant to straight up control his every action? Was this a joke? Was the vex messing with him? Or was this actually what they expected him to do in order to win? Then again, this could be taken as a good thing. As long as he didn’t have that heartbreak become real, he should be safe? Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? 

“Bdubs, listen to me, alright?”

He nodded, just barely edging closer to him.

“You’re working with me, alright? You listen to me and do  _ exactly  _ as I tell you to do. If I tell you to do something, you do it. If I tell you to speak, you speak. Got that?”

He nodded, opening his mouth slowly before quietly whispering to him.

“Yes, I understand. I’ll do exactly as you tell me to do.”

Scar smiled, patting the younger hermit on the head before looking over toward the door. He got up, about to open it himself, before an idea came to him.

“Be a darling and open the door for me, will you?”

Just like he had before, he nodded enthusiastically, before getting up off his feet and opening the door wide open, holding it open for Scar with one hand and the other hand freely hanging on his side. Scar thanked him, walking out silently and letting his manager follow. If he was even lableable as a manager now. The term ‘helper’ fits better, if anything.

He wasn’t new to this kind of magic. He knew vaguely how mind control works, one person loses their will and the other gets an extra person following them around and meeting all of their standards dead on. If anything, having something like that would benefit him more than it would damage him. The less he has to worry about working on every little thing about his campaign, the more he can spend on working on his village, and on keeping his end of the deal. 

“Come with me to my base, we can discuss some more of our plans to win over there.”

And with that, they quickly trailed off into the nether.


	2. Lost control? Don't be so scared about i

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not exactly much happens in this chapter except Scar tests how much control he has over Bdubs. Starts at the end of the last chapter.

Their feet squelched and prodded at the nylium beneath them, the teal tint a nice contrast against the crimsons and maroons of the nether. The warped forest was abandoned, besides the occasional enderman that would stare them down from behind with brooding, purple ‘eyes’, causing Scar and Bdubs to continue on their path with a slight paranoia. 

Scar averted his gaze over to his helper, who was looking ahead to where they were walking to, not even the mutters that came from the slender creatures distracting him. It was impressive how that had been taken away from his usual, chaotic self, to someone similar to Mumbo or Grian when they’re set on their work. Maybe more set on their goal, if that was even possible. He smiled nervously, looking forward to find that they had made it to the edge of the forest. The rest of the trees had been already chopped down by hermits who had needed it, and by that, Ren, most likely. 

What was left was a field, bordered by a lava lake. On the other side, more of the wastes, covered with piglin troops as far as the eye could see. The two had come unprepared, without even a nugget of gold to offer to them in return for the ability to run off and give them the privacy they would need. And it wasn’t like they were in the mood for fighting.

“Should we try and find another way around?”

Scar had a quick look around for any other kind of biome that they could cross through. Behind them was more forest, to their right was a rather large ocean of lava. And to their left was a crimson forest, a strider docked at the side of the land. They could try and get on without a saddle, just hoping that there was enough room for two of them.

He grabbed a mushroom off of the ground, before walking off toward it. Bdubs quickly followed after him, watching closely as Scar pulled himself up onto the creature, moving forward to the front half of it. He beckoned him over with two fingers, patting the back of the strider. Bdubs nodded to him, walking over slowly before slowly hoisting himself up, wrapping his hands around Scar to balance himself out. He seemed surprised at first, before turning his head to face him. 

“Are you ready? Or do you need a minute to sort yourself out?”

“No, I am ready. You can go now.”

* * *

The two of them looked over at each other, the swollen cries of the portal slowly leaving their ears. The way they took to get here certainly wasn’t the most convenient, but it worked at the very least. There was another trek left, between the portal and Scar’s village, not exactly the longest one, but it could still count as one. 

He smiled at him, grabbing his arm softly before taking the lead, letting the other follow behind him.

There was something off, slightly, with himself. He wasn’t normally this… content, with something like mind control taking place. Yet the concept of him even slightly having control over anyone’s actions, not just Bdubs’, brought him some kind of euphoria, pleasure, almost. Watching him slowly submit beneath him was something that interested him deeply, if only briefly before he told himself it was selfish to think this. 

Grass turned to dirt, and dirt turned to leaves, and those leaves that piled over the ground turned to gravel, the buildings and wildlife which he had built over the past month or so looking more like a scene you would see in something like  _ Alice in Wonderland _ , huffing a small breath of fear down spines, and leaving a creepy aura in the air. Even him, the one who started the whole project, felt it unsettling in some way, how the thickness of the oxygen seemed to lighten on his chest, and the village looked eerily out of place against the sole greens and occasional browns of the jungle’s canopy. 

Scar followed the pathways down, climbing the ladder he had set up to his main base. The sprucewood door that he had to so often replace because of that ‘jungle bandit’ which would grab it the second that they had the chance to. It was just annoying at his point, the amount of wood he was wasting on doors. The amounts of diamonds he was using up selling out Ren of his spruce logs. 

“This way,  _ sweet _ ”

The door opened with a click, Scar striding in not long before Bdubs followed after him quietly. He led him down to where he kept his KGOOMDS, leaving a bit of wood for himself to sit on. 

_ Now, what to do with him? _

Scar sat there for a second, lost in his thoughts on what he could do. When he finally had a few ideas on what he should try, he looked up to him, and began to speak. He wouldn’t do anything too rash, at least not yet. Maybe when he’s desperate for winning, then he can try some more of the more ‘one time use’ cards. 

“First, empty out your pockets. I need to see what you have on you.”

He stared into his eyes for a second, noticing just how lifeless they looked. Like he was a zombie taken from its grave. That second of locked eyes was quickly ended by Bdubs picking everything he had out of his inventory, placing them on the floor in front of him. Diamonds, a shulker box with some spare stuff, his weapons, his bed, and small chunks of materials he had left there, probably from older projects.

“Alright, are you sure that’s everything?”

Scar picked up the diamonds he had left, putting his bed down next to him while waiting for him to speak.

“I’m sure. There is absolutely nothing left in there.”

It was quite honestly bringing him enjoyment. Watching him so easily do whatever he wished with a simple movement of his mouth. Would it be just as easy to do to the other hermits? Would anyone start to notice how all of a sudden Scar’s having him follow like a wild dog? 

“Not bad. Now, set your spawn here.”

An idea suddenly came to him, looking down to the KGOOMDS, opening it up while Bdubs took a slight rest to ensure he spawned there. He picked out a stack of flyers and some tape, each flyer with the simple message of ‘SCAR FOR MAYOR’ imprinted in white letters on an orange background, piled up one after the other. 

“Tape these around wherever you can. When you run out, meet me at Cub’s pyramid. Make sure nobody follows you. Text me when you make it there.”

And with that, he was left alone at his base, Bdubs off swiftly to follow his orders. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so short, I promise there will be more in tomorrow’s one!
> 
> Also come bash me on Tumblr (@demililly)

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, welcome to the AU! Just wanna say to everyone to read the tags. There’s a lot of messed up shit in this.


End file.
